24 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



sert on any table. It combines the most exquisite 

 and recherche Havor of the i)eacli, the plum and the 

 grape, and then it is in eating- for eiglit montlis in 

 tlie year. From an occasional remark in your 

 pai)er I sup|K>so you have a plimmer, at least, of 

 light ns to the excellence of tlie pear; but I fear 

 you have not yet attained to tlie true appreciation 

 of its vast superiority over all other fruits. It has 

 a wonderful p )wer in soothint; a troubled s])irit. 

 As tlie luscious morsels, one after another, melt in 

 your mouth, a calm, quiet, inward satisfaction 

 makes you forget all your troubles and disajipoint- 

 ments. Do you remember an incident in the life 

 of CnA.Ri.ES Jamks Fox; showing by what expedient 

 he had control over his mind under the strongest 

 temptation to despair? I will recite the story. 

 [My reverend and learned friend, who once used 

 this incident with great, ])ower and beauty to illus- 

 trate an important principle which he was discuss- 

 ing, might, |)erliaps, blame me for taking his ver- 

 sion of it, even in this private and strictly confi- 

 dential letter; but, as my application of it is so 

 purely and eminently intellectual, I think it may 

 be allowed.] Fox was, at one period of his life, a 

 gambler, and on a certain occasion, after having 

 lost large sums of money, rose from the table in 

 such violent agita:ion that some of hi-? friends fol- 

 lowed him home, apprehending that he might be 

 tempted to take his own life. They found him 

 holding in his hands, not a pistol nor a dagger, but 

 a book. He was already en deshabille, reclining 

 before the tire, apparently lost in the pages of his 

 favorite Greek author, IIeuodotds. You might 

 have supijosed that his losses had not seriously 

 affected him, and that the apprehensions of his 

 friends were groundless. But you would have 

 been greatly deceived. He had well nigh ruined 

 his fortune; remorse and shame were rankling in 

 his bosom, and the temptation to end all by laying 

 violent hands upon himself was strong upon him. 

 But, knowing that if he should yield up his mind 

 to dwell upon the subject he would be overcome, 

 by a violent effort he had turned away his atten- 

 tion and was holding it fixed upon the thoiights of 

 the great historia-i. The child-like simplicity, the 

 grand sublimity of the father of history, with tlie 

 indescribable music and graces of the Ionian Greek 

 dialect, were moving u[)on the agitations of the 

 great orator's snul. He had passed out of the 

 gloomy sphere 'of his own ])ersoiial agency and 

 misfortune across the gulf of three thousand years, 

 and emerged in the soft light and shadow of re- 

 motest antiquity. The pictures of the earliest civ- 

 ilizations of mankind on the banks of the Eu|)hrates, 

 the Nile and the Illyssus, were moving before him. 

 The heroes of Thermo])yla), Marathon and Salamis 

 lived again in his presence. In the mean while, 

 the dark hour of liis temptation was passing away 

 from tlie statesman, upon whose wisdom and 

 eloquence hung the destiny of a mighty empire. 



Now what tiie ancient classics were to Fox, 

 pears are to me. Am I perplexed, in trouble, in 

 doubt what to do?— I take an extra pear with my 

 dessert. Do matters look darker and blacker? — I 

 take pear lunch at 12. Anxiety in reference to onr 

 national trouliles has co.st me many a basket. 

 During the summer, while our fortunes were wa- 

 vering, I kei)t in good he.irt on Doyenne d'Ete, 

 Bloodgood and Bearre Giffard. I had just com- 



menced on the Bartletts when the Bull Run defeat 

 drove me to the Rostiezer and Tyson. The news 

 of MoClellan's splendid triumphs in ^[aryland 

 gave additional relish to my extra Louise Bonne 

 de Jerseys, (grown on dry, warm, sandy soil, the 

 tree open to the sun and air,) my Belle Lucratives 

 and Flemish Beauties. But it required all my 

 ])lnlosophy and a large su])ply of llowells and 

 Doyenne lioussock to keep my spirits up when the 

 President's emancipation and uiilif.ary law ])rocla- 

 mation came out. My nerves received a severe 

 shock, and I hardly know what the result would 

 have been but that the Sheldons were just begin- 

 ning to " come." These quieted my alarm, removed 

 the excitement, and I have taken them regularl/ 

 ever siuce with the happiest effect. Indeed, I 

 think now that if Bkaog should beat Bcem,, or 

 the radicals should defeat McClellax, I should 

 survive it, although at the cost of an extra basket 

 or two of Sheldons, Did yon know tliat Jeffer- 

 son Davis was very fond of good fruit? and did it 

 ever occur to you — it has to me — that if a nice 

 basket of pears could be sent him with an intima- 

 tion that there were plenty more of the same kind 

 to be had upon the sole condition of his laying 

 down hi^ arms, that we should see another repeti- 

 tion of Captain Scott atid the coon? At any rate 

 it may be worth the trial, and I send you a bf.sket 

 which please forward to liim.* (Should it. so hap- 

 pen, as possibly it may, that it can not be se#t to 

 General D. immediatelv, I do not see but you must 

 eat them yourself.) If my first efi'ort does not 

 bring peace I shall not despair. All my jiower of 

 persuasion in this form is not contiiiied in one 

 basket. I do not stake all upon a single throw. 



I remember a lesson that your brother editor, 

 Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, gave to a young 

 friend of mine on that point. The young gentle- 

 man was on his first visit to the great city. He 

 called at the office of the Indeyendeut to ^ee Mr. 

 Beeciier, who was his father's friend. Mr. B. in- 

 formed him how to find his (Mr. B.'.s) house in 

 Brooklyn, and then gave him sotne instructions as 

 to his deportment. He told him to stand up 

 straight, look bold, speak sharp and positive, and 

 the liackuian would not suspect he was from the 

 country, and consequently would not dare to over- 

 charge him. "But," said the young man, "would 

 it noo behest, Mr. B., for me to .swear at him a lit- 

 tle ?" " By no means," was Mr. B.'s re]ily ; "make 

 it a rule, young man, always to hold something in 

 reserve : never make the mistake of exhausting all 

 your resources when you commence, but keep 

 something to fall back upon." 



I am following this rule. If Sheldons do not 

 accomplish the purjiose, I have Winter Nelis, Van 

 Mons Leon Le Clerc, Lawrence, Josephine de 

 Malines, Easter Beurre, A;c., to be sent one after 

 another. If these all fail, I think we may as well 

 gratify our radical friends first as last and divide 

 the Union. By the by, speaking of Mr. Beeciiek, 

 could not his theology be improved by eating the 



* Undfr the extreme <liflflcuItT of transmiiiing pafkages to 

 Eicliinond, our excellent friend w'ill excuse us I'lr y elding to the 

 lempl.ilion of aprir^prialing (he \wix% to our own use. They 

 were of the very highest t-hanicicr. Pear^ are noi «niong; ;»ie 

 ooininodities allowed to pass under protection of the while flag. 

 Inilividually, we were ereally the gainers, wliale* er of loss may 

 occur to the "belllcerenl " parties. SliouM a suit for damages 

 be Itrouglit against us when peace shall be declared, we shall 

 hgld oureslvfs liable for paymenl in Confederate scrip.— Eds, 



